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Overview

This template provides a production‑ready TIG (Telegraf, InfluxDB, Grafana) monitoring stack as Monk runnables. You can:
  • Run it directly to get a complete time-series monitoring solution
  • Inherit it in your own infrastructure to collect, store, and visualize metrics
The TIG stack combines Telegraf (metrics collection agent), InfluxDB (time-series database), and Grafana (visualization) to provide a powerful, purpose-built monitoring platform for time-series data.

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What this template manages

  • Telegraf agents for metrics collection
  • InfluxDB for time-series data storage
  • Grafana for visualization and dashboards
  • Pre-configured data sources and inputs
  • Persistent storage for time-series data

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Quick start (run directly)

  1. Load templates
monk load MANIFEST
  1. Run the TIG stack
monk run tig/stack
  1. Customize credentials (recommended via inheritance)
Running directly uses the defaults defined in this template’s variables. Secrets added with monk secrets add will not affect this runnable unless you inherit it and reference those secrets.
  • Preferred: inherit and replace variables with secret("...") as shown below.
  • Alternative: fork/clone and edit the variables in the manifest, then monk load MANIFEST and run.
Once started:
  • InfluxDB UI: http://localhost:8086
  • Grafana UI: http://localhost:3000 (default: admin/admin)

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Configuration

Key variables you can customize in this template: 
variables:
  # InfluxDB
  influxdb-image-tag: "latest"        # InfluxDB image tag
  influxdb-port: "8086"               # InfluxDB HTTP API port
  influxdb-org: "myorg"               # organization name
  influxdb-bucket: "metrics"          # default bucket
  influxdb-admin-token: "..."         # admin token (env: DOCKER_INFLUXDB_INIT_ADMIN_TOKEN)
  influxdb-retention: "30d"           # data retention period
  
  # Telegraf
  telegraf-image-tag: "latest"        # Telegraf image tag
  telegraf-interval: "10s"            # collection interval
  
  # Grafana
  grafana-image-tag: "latest"         # Grafana image tag
  grafana-port: "3000"                # Grafana UI port
  grafana-admin-password: "..."       # admin password (env: GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD)
Data is persisted under ${monk-volume-path}/influxdb, ${monk-volume-path}/grafana, and ${monk-volume-path}/telegraf on the host. Inherit the TIG stack to monitor your infrastructure and declare connections. Example: 
namespace: myapp
monitoring:
  defines: runnable
  inherits: tig/stack
  variables:
    influxdb-admin-token:
      value: <- secret("influxdb-token")
    grafana-admin-password:
      value: <- secret("grafana-password")
api:
  defines: runnable
  containers:
    api:
      image: myorg/api
  connections:
    metrics:
      runnable: monitoring
      service: influxdb
  variables:
    influxdb-host:
      value: <- connection-hostname("metrics")
    influxdb-token:
      value: <- secret("influxdb-token")
Then set the secrets once and run your app group: 
monk secrets add -g influxdb-token="STRONG_TOKEN"
monk secrets add -g grafana-password="STRONG_PASSWORD"
monk run myapp/api

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Ports and connectivity

  • Service: influxdb on TCP port 8086 (HTTP API)
  • Service: grafana on TCP port 3000
  • Telegraf communicates with InfluxDB internally
  • From other runnables in the same process group, use connection-hostname("\<connection-name>") to resolve service hosts.

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Persistence and configuration

  • InfluxDB data path: ${monk-volume-path}/influxdb:/var/lib/influxdb2
  • Grafana data path: ${monk-volume-path}/grafana:/var/lib/grafana
  • Telegraf config path: ${monk-volume-path}/telegraf:/etc/telegraf
  • You can customize Telegraf inputs and outputs by modifying the configuration files in the Telegraf config path.

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Features

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Telegraf

  • 200+ input plugins (system, Docker, databases, APIs)
  • Multiple output plugins
  • Data transformation and aggregation
  • Lightweight and efficient

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InfluxDB

  • Purpose-built time-series database
  • High write and query performance
  • Flux query language
  • Automatic data downsampling
  • Retention policies
  • Clustering and HA support

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Grafana

  • Beautiful dashboards
  • InfluxDB native integration
  • Alerting and notifications
  • Templating and variables

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Telegraf Configuration

Example Telegraf inputs: 
[[inputs.cpu]]
  percpu = true
  totalcpu = true

[[inputs.disk]]
  ignore_fs = ["tmpfs", "devtmpfs"]

[[inputs.mem]]

[[inputs.docker]]
  endpoint = "unix:///var/run/docker.sock"

[[outputs.influxdb_v2]]
  urls = ["http://influxdb:8086"]
  token = "$INFLUXDB_TOKEN"
  organization = "myorg"
  bucket = "metrics"

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InfluxDB Query Example

Using Flux: 
from(bucket: "metrics")
  |> range(start: -1h)
  |> filter(fn: (r) => r._measurement == "cpu")
  |> aggregateWindow(every: 1m, fn: mean)

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Use cases

The TIG stack excels at:
  • Infrastructure monitoring (CPU, memory, disk, network)
  • Container and Kubernetes monitoring
  • IoT sensor data collection
  • Application performance monitoring
  • Custom metrics collection
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Use prometheus/ for alternative metrics collection and storage
  • Combine with loki/ for log aggregation alongside metrics
  • Integrate with alertmanager/ for advanced alerting capabilities

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Troubleshooting

  • If you changed influxdb-admin-token or grafana-admin-password but the containers have existing data, authentication may fail. Either reset the data volumes or update the credentials inside the respective services to match.
  • Ensure the host volumes are writable by the container users.
  • Access InfluxDB UI at http://localhost:8086
  • Check Telegraf is collecting:
monk logs -l 100 tig/telegraf
  • Query InfluxDB:
influx query 'from(bucket:"metrics") |> range(start:-5m) |> limit(n:10)'
  • Check logs:
monk logs -l 500 -f tig/influxdb
monk logs -l 500 -f tig/telegraf
monk logs -l 500 -f tig/grafana
  • For missing metrics:
    • Verify Telegraf configuration
    • Check InfluxDB token permissions
    • Ensure network connectivity between components
  • For Grafana issues, verify InfluxDB data source configuration with correct org, bucket, and token